Pay €2 or stop whinging: Michael O’Leary tells complaining customers

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary was in top form on RTE’s Today with Sean O’ Rourke and Joe Duffy’s Liveline programmes where discussion’s around Dublin Airport’s proposed second runway quickly segued into customers complaining about seat reservation charges.

Mr O’Leary did not hold back when Sean O’Rourke read out a tweet which criticised what the tweeter described as "Ryanair’s rip-off seating policy".

Disgruntled passengers have been flooding the airwaves in recent weeks to air their grievances about the policy which can see members of the same family seated separately unless they pay for reserved seats.

In a no holds barred response the Ryanair boss admitted there had been some controversy surrounding the seating policy but wasn’t finished there.

"We have a free seating policy. If you don’t want to pay a fare of €2 and you choose a random seat, you get it free of charge.

"If you want to sit beside somebody, you buy a reserved seat, you can do that from €2 and frankly if you’re not happy to pay the €2 to sit beside somebody else, stop complaining," he stated.

"If you have chosen a random seat, you’re getting a random seat, so stop whinging. Pay the €2 like more than 50% or 65 million of our customers do and sit wherever you like."

Towards the end of the interview Sean O’Rourke then brought Mr O’Leary’s attention to a caller who said they were seated beside a 13-year-old girl who cried throughout her journey because she had been separated from her family.

Have a listen from 18m20sec ... Priceless.

Later in the day Mr O’Leary also defended Ryanair’s seating policy on RTÉ Radio 1’s Liveline where headdressed a number of callers.